Overdue Books 2.0
As always, Ed Vielmetti is thinking about how to make the library’s data work harder for him, with or without the library’s help. (Of course, Ed’s library is the phenomenal Ann Arbor District Library, which already offers more web-based services than most other libraries, but the simple openness of their systems makes it easy for a superpatron like Ed to extend these services even further on his own.)
So when Ed couldn’t find some overdue library books in the house, he started wondering aloud how the library’s services could help him out. Now we just need to think like Ed, too.
Now Where Did I Put that Book?
“All of the library books I have are tagged with RFID chips, which is used for inventory control. That should mean that I can use something like this 3M RFID locator device as a reader and scanner to locate a lost item.”
Wall of Books Revisited: Just What Do I Have Checked Out?
“No, I still haven’t found my overdue books, but at least now I know what they look like.
The AADL prints a helpful list of the books you have checked out, but doesn’t give you pictures of them (not yet at least). So I’m working on the Greasemonkey script that will insert cover images into that page. This is not that, but a step along the way.”
What I’m really waiting for, though, is Ed’s Greasemonkey script that adds “text me the location of this item” to a library catalog viewed in Firefox. I don’t think I’ll be able to use it for my home library’s catalog, but I’ll hold out hope it can be adapted.
Text Me the Location of this Book — Step One of a Greasemonkey Plugin for the AADL
“At the time I noted “how hard could it be to add this to my own library with Greasemonkey” or some similar off the cuff remark (oh how foolish I can be some times). So let’s pick that apart and see how I’d do this at the AADL.”
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Pingback by CBS Bibliotek Blog » Blog Archive » Når du ikke kan finde bogen 2.0 — August 20, 2008 @ 1:40 am
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Pingback by Where in the World? « On Libraries & Other Stuff — August 21, 2008 @ 2:07 am
It isn’t what you’re dreaming of (Greasemonkey, patron-side innovation), but if your library uses III (which I believe Ann Arbor still does) you should be able to add texting ability to your catalog as the Iowa City Public Library does. Take a look at this record : http://catalog.icpl.org/search/t?SEARCH=l8r+g8r&SUBMIT=Search and click on “Send via text message or email”.
Comment by Jason — August 21, 2008 @ 8:03 am
more about this — adam brin is the original author and it was deployed at bryn mawr first — see
http://trilogy.brynmawr.edu/mt/trinews/2007/04/textmessage_from_tripod.html
for the release announcement, and
http://trilogy.brynmawr.edu/trico/sys/sms.html
for the code.
Comment by Edward Vielmetti — August 26, 2008 @ 12:32 pm
[…] week, I highlighted Ed Vielmetti’s thoughts about adding covers to the list of overdue books you hav…, as well as the ability to text the location of an item to your cell phone. Both of these are […]
Pingback by The Shifted Librarian » Add SMS to Your III Catalog! — August 26, 2008 @ 8:45 pm
[…] week, I highlighted Ed Vielmetti’s thoughts about adding covers to the list of overdue books you hav…, as well as the ability to text the location of an item to your cell phone. Both of these are […]
Pingback by News » Add SMS to Your III Catalog! — August 27, 2008 @ 4:06 am
well, I didn’t end up finding the books until after I had been fined for them, but fortunately I could pay the fines online.
Comment by Edward Vielmetti — September 25, 2008 @ 9:27 am